INK; A Philosophy Runs Through Each Brush Stroke

By LILY KOPPEL

Published: December 27, 2005

THE Japanese brush paintings of plum blossom branches in a dusty SoHo window could easily be New York fire escape latticework.

Inside, though, is an oasis for creating an artistic relic: sumi brush drawing.

Nestled among the chic boutiques of Macdougal Street is the Koho School of Sumi-e, which serves as a placid antidote to its neighbors. Koho Yamamoto, 82, the daughter of a calligrapher, is sensei of the school, the only one of its kind in the city.

On the photocopied sheet she gives students, Ms. Yamamoto includes guidelines that are obtuse at first: ''Destroy many paintings,'' ''Meditation is through Sumi-e, therefore long conversation is not allowed in class,'' also, ''No smoking during class hours.''

She seeks to convey the Zen philosophy running through each brush stroke. There are no shrines in the small studio, but still lifes adorn every surface, each one an object lesson: philosopher stones, ink-blotted paper towels and old seashells.

''It connects you with something older and much bigger than yourself,'' said Margo Magid, an advertising consultant, studying a jagged mountain scene from a book and painting her own in blotches of midnight-dark ink. ''It doesn't happen very often in New York.''

Students bring in newspapers for practice (financial pages are a favorite) and eventually graduate to painting on paper.

''Since the students have not experienced the Asian world, bamboo flute music is played to create a quiet and calm atmosphere in the class,'' said Ms. Yamamoto, who has run the school since 1973.

Ms. Yamamoto learned sumi drawing from a master artist while confined behind barbed wire in an internment camp in Utah during World War II. Later in New York, her work -- radical lilacs, waves, a rock scene she now interprets as a lost cat -- evolved to draw parallels to the Abstract Expressionists, like Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman, who were influenced by Japanese calligraphy. Ms. Yamamoto studied at the Art Students League of New York and taught at Columbia University.

On the first snowy Sunday in December, Ms. Yamamoto was presiding over two students.

''Students first learn bamboo, then pine, then plum blossoms,'' she explained.

As Ms. Yamamoto pulled open a wide metal drawer to show supplies, brushes, glass pots of ink and a progression of drawings of orchids and landscapes, a terra cotta pot dotted with magenta flowers fell to the ground.